The wait is over: Sprint announces HTC 8XT availability for Friday, July 19th, for $150

Sprint just sent out press notifications that the HTC 8XT, Sprint’s first Windows Phone 8 device, will go on sale Friday, July 19th for $99 (after a $50 mail in rebate).

The HTC 8XT will feature HTC’s “BoomSound” or in English, "dual front-facing stereo speakers with a dedicated amplifier", expandable storage and a decently sized 4.3” display. The 8XT can be thought of as a new Windows Phone as it is literally the combination of the 8X, 8S and Android HTC One—bringing all the best features to the mix.

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The wait is over: Sprint announces HTC 8XT availability for Friday, July 19th, for $150

I've had the phone in my hand.
First of all the phone is light; enough so that the retail box feels almost like it's empty. The design of the device is fantastic, but I'm not overly thrilled with the color of it (purplish not my thing). The plastic feels nice and along with the shape is pleasing to hold. Overall, the weight and feel of the device are near perfect in the hand.
Turning it on and setting it up is pretty standard WP fare, and the device looks as you would expect. I was really concerned the 480p screen would look terrible, but with the basic tiles it looks perfectly fine. Unfortunately when you open up a web page the 8XT looks like garbage. The screen resolution (ppi) is just sub-par for a phone that cost $149 with a $50 mail in rebate. At that price we have phones with 1080p, a better camera and similar storage.
Overall I think the phone would be an amzing device, if it were free on contract. For the same price you can get an iphone 4S, a galaxy SIII, or EVO LTE. All of those devices offer better features than the 8XT, and that is a huge problem. Even with a 720p screen this device should have been priced at $99 with no mail in rebate. It's just not going to sell well enough at this price point with that horrendous screen.
Many people might also complain about the internal memory, but I've always used more of my memory on music so the 8GB plus SD card isn't an issue for me. However, that adds another additional cost to the device which is my main problem with the device; it's cost is too high.
I'm glad we finally have a WP8 device, but I'm not sure I'll be able to live with the way the fonts look at 480p when browsing the web. I have a feeling this phone will end up with my dad, replacing his HTC arrive.

From past actions it's pretty clear Sprint has no care for Winmo users or Microsoft themselves.
Microsoft likely approached them with some bonus to get WP8 on Sprint to round out the major carriers. Sprint who hates Microsoft dictated lame ass specs so the phone will fail, they can give MS the finger, and pocket the MS cash. No doubt they will write off the loss as well to avoid some taxes.

My advice for anyone on sprint who MUST have a WP8 device now. Buy it off contract and live with it till a better option comes out.

The low res display and the 8gb is enough limits to stop most people from signing on for this phone. If your just using the OS with a few key apps with, it will be fine but, if you like APPS and games, I would skip this phone.

Maybe the Samsung model will hit with better specs... This is a low end phone, not the high end Sprint users have been dreaming about.

Or Maybe Microsoft will get with the program SOON and allow apps to be installed to a MicroSD slot.

Why Sprint have to choose HTC over Nokia? I'm pretty sure more customers will be buying if it was a Nokia Lumia 925 or 1002. I'm glad to see more support for Windows Phone regardless of what brand. #WP8

Have you seen Nokia devices on any CDMA carrier outside of Verizon? Nokia is not very liked among the Qualcomm based CDMA community because of their piracy based actions of using unauthorized components years ago (which lead them to face several lawsuits from Qualcomm years ago). Nokia's only way they'll gain trust from the Qualcomm based CDMA community is by at least accept Sprint's terms in order to see more devices on the CDMA side (it's all about the demand to use only Qualcomm made CDMA components).

Anyone else notice the lack of NFC mentioned? On HTC's website of the 8XT it says NFC capable depending on your carrier. I was really hoping Sprint would be able to bring the Wallet function of the OS into a reality. I guess it's just a pipe dream now...

It was my understanding from Microsoft's website about Wallet that the mobile operator have to have secure SIM cards to enable wallet. I believe they do it to provide more security over things like Google Wallet, which has shown vulnerability since it only authenticates using the phone hardware. I was hoping that Sprint would have support since they use embedded cards called UICCs for LTE, but I guess we will find out for sure on the 19th.

Sprint Music and Sprint Music Plus are streaming services provided by Sprint. If I remember correctly, they evolved from Sprint Radio found on earlier phones from Sprint. I believe it has some free channels you can listen to (they play it at the Sprint office where I work) and you can subscribe for a fuller channel lineup for a monthly fee.

Very handsome looking device, maybe even the best looking one on the market. I've currently got 4gb worth of apps and 20gb worth of music on my Lumia so the storage issue wouldn't be too much of an issue.

$150 is absurd for this phone. It has 8 GB of storage and lacks an HD display, not to mention that the CPU is about 7% slower than the one found in the HTC 8X, Lumia 920, and ATIV S. The phone itself is fine, but it is far more comparable to the Lumia 820 than it is to any of the above flagship devices.

Physical design doesn't or shouldn't matter when the device is extremely limited cause of the 8gb memory. 8gb should at best only be on the low low end of phones anymore. High end devices need to be 32 to 64gb these days. Surely they could do better if they priced the phone $30 more and gave it 32gb at least?

The point is it is sprints high end device. Cause its the only one they have. Pathetic for them not to go for a higher spec phone. I still think the arrive would give this phone a run for its money. :-\

Well until it ever sheds light of being on the carrier this is the phone. Anyways low end or not it is my belief a low end phone should only be on prepaid plans. Esp since new higher end phones are $99 new on contract or even free (or close to it) after a few weeks out. This phone they have some nice stuff that would be par for high end but then drop the ball and kill it even for a low end. But what ever blah! Sprint doesn't have me convinced in the slightest.

I see it's packing a Snapdragon 400, does this mean WP8 is good to go with the newer Qualcomm chips? If so, surprised we aren't seeing newer Nokia phones (925, 1020) launching with at least the Snapdragon 600. They are shipping in volume at this point, with tens of millions of 600 chips already in the global market. Price can not be that significantly different then the S4 chips, at least not enough to kill their profit margins...
What do you think the delay is related to? Do you think WP8 simply isn't optomized for quad-core chips? I realize you can shove one in the phone and it'll still work, but is WP8 built to utilize 4 simultaneously running cores vs. 2? I wonder why Nokia doesn't simply jump on the 600 bandwagon as all the high-end androids now use. Just curious...

I've always like HTC and they've been at the verge of innovation in cellphones for awhile. Are you trying to say they copied Nokia? I own a 920 but don't feel they copied the 900. They didn't come up with the 8x/8s overnight.

Are you being serious? All HTC do is copy the Lumia design was copied by HTC which was copied by the 900. Even look at the HTC one looks just like the back of the iPhone only bigger. look at HTC top 2 phones and look at Lumia and the iphone tell me what you think

Assuming network coverage isn't an issue, I have to agree. I'd go with T-Mobile and the 925 over this device. The ATIV S Neo could be kind of fun, since it has such a large, gorgeous screen, but you still miss out on the Nokia stuff.

That would be the same situation for all CDMA carriers which are not carrying any Nokia devices. And there is a reason why it would stay that way:
1. CDMA carriers are still waiting for an appology fromNokia for their actions years ago, plus they are demanding the same conditions Sprint is currently demanding (Qualcomm manufactured components).

How about you saying the other half of the story where Sprint (and all CDMA carriers not offering Nokia devices) demanding that Nokia use only the same Qualcomm manufactured CDMA components they complained of being too expensive. That made Nokia walk away at the last round of negotiations with Sprint and several regional CDMA carriers (both prepaid and postpaid). Did Stephen Elop and company thought it would be easy to deal with the same CDMA carriers they tried to screw years ago with unauthorized components, and when they get busted they bashed the CDMA community in the US (especially Sprint and Verizon) as being a niche market after they dropped CDMA production.
Sorry Daniel, but this one Nokia can blame themselves for past actions.

And before you go further, why don't you interview the ones in charge of product development for carriers like C Spire, Appalacchian Wireless, Premiere, United Wireless, Cricket, Open Mobile de Puerto Rico, and several others who have been in active negotiations with Nokia? You will find out Nokia still does not care about the CDMA community, even with two devices on Verizon. You will find out also why those same CDMA carriers decided to wait on how Sprint handled the WP8 issue, and let me make you aware about the answers they will give you, and why some of them avoided WP7.

Same here, I jumped ship to AT&T and the Lumia 920 a while back. While I have nothing against Sprint personally and was with them since pretty much cell phones came out, I just couldn't take it any longer. Also knowing there were not going to be getting Nokia my decision was a lot easier. As for AT&T that I have now, meh... but my phone is great.

Better priced at $99. This is all too much a painful reminder if the One X / One X+ fiasco HTC pulled. Why put out a same designed slightly variant old phone when you could designed around the One structure? The minds at HTC is mind boggling

Microsoft can actually fix the lack of ability to move apps to the SD card through a minor update (which can be very useful).
As far as the Ativ S Neo goes, rumors point for a mid-August launch, and don't think this is all Sprint will offer for WP8 devices.

I would love to know where you get your information. I'm waiting for the Neo and it would be nice to see a release date posted on it.
On the other hand, I have to say I would be very surprised to see Sprint come out with another Windows Phone anytime soon. But that could just be due to having been burned by Sprint with the Arrive.

Actually, Sprint didn't get burned by the Arrive. They shot themselves in the foot by not support the device when it first came out. As with all other carriers, Sprint took a very hands off approach to selling the Htc Arrive and did not train their employees properly on its features. In truth, you could have read an article on this site and been more informed than the carriers employees.

This is 100% true. I myself called sprint to ask what a notification icon on the phone was for as I couldn't find it online nor in the manual. I ended up arguing with the agent for probably 20 minutes or more about the fact it Sprint did indeed have a windows phone and that it wasn't another android phone. The agent was convinced that there HTC Arrive was an android phone and was trying to be very nice in not trying to offend me because I thought I had a windows phone. At one point she even flat out said, "sir, we don't have a windows phone so there's no way that the Arrive could be a windows phone". After putting me on hold for another 10 minutes or so she came back and told me they couldn't find my answer, "that's ok" I said, "I found the answer myself while on hold, do you want me to tell you what it is so you can add it to your knowledge base". I don't think she ever did come around to the fact it was indeed a windows phone, even though she said she had the manual right in front of her.

Yes. Enabling that functionality will be awfully convenient but will leave a bigger inconvenience of a big gaping hole in security. You'd want to use this phone as a BYOD at work and as such should conform to enterprise level of security.

But this would open up a lot of opportunity to side-load applications; Something MS is not too keen on doing. Remember that MS makes a whole lot more money through patent leasing for Android than it does from WP sales. The whole point to Win8 and WP8 existing is to secure an app ecosystem so that they can get the income from app sales that Apple and Google enjoy.

Think of it like consoles: Throughout the life of a console MS makes very little money from console hardware sales after you consider the costs of development and support of the systems (especially with the RROD issues). It does not loose money throughout the life of the console, but it does not make much either. But if you include revenue from software sales then it makes total sense to be in the console market. And (at least from a business perspective) it makes sense to loose some customers from DRM requirements on the new consoles, but gain a ton more income from added game sales... granted they were obviously not thinking that the backlash would be as bad as it was. Still, the point is that they will never allow SD card app installation simply because they do not want to open the floodgates of pirating possibilities that come with it.

That said, MS should really put their foot down and require a minimum of 16GB of storage on devices with the release of WP8.1 next year, and encourage phone manufacturers to offer 64GB models so that we can have more useful options available. 16GB is good enough for apps and some pictures, 32GB is good enough to put documents lots of pictures and some music on the device, but right now 64GB (really ~45GB) is really needed to put everything on the device. 128GB would currently be overkill... but the undercurrent push to eventually replace laptops with tablets and dockable smartphones 128GB and 256GB of storage will not be unheard of in a few years.

I understand your concern about sideloading unauthorized apps. Microaoft can create a system to verify apps by linking the card to the Windows store. This way you will force these bootleggers to fund a way to fully jailbreak WP8 in order to override that requirement. Don't get me wrong, but there are app developers who create great apps but do not want to pay exhorbitant amounts of money for official approval as in the case of Cydia for iOS.

I'd like to know why no other phone since the original focus has been able to integrate the sd card into internal memory. Its the one thing that floored me about WP7 when I bought this thing in 2011. Sad to see its never been used again as its the one thing I love about this old lemon.
Edit: I guess I should have read more. Its more of a security thing then eh?

Agreed. I had a HTC 8X on Verizon with 16gb of memory, I play a lot of games and have a bunch of apps. I was always running out of space on it. I would always have to uninstall paid apps just to install others. 8gb is a joke for WP8 if you like apps. It's sad Sprint's first phone has this limit and not even 16gb...

When will we see a "High" end Wp8 device ? Really ? Like a 32gb or even (a dream) 64gb WITH a MicroSD slot. I dream of a day where I can install ALL the apps I paid for at the same time with out having to worry about space (64gb or a 32gb with a MicroSD slot where I can install apps to the card would work).

And to those to say, just install the app when you want to use it...not all the time am I connected to a Wi-FI network, so it results in me not being able to install that app when i want to use it...

Android has the option and devices with 64gb with a MicroSD slot, and even iOS has a 64gb option...Why not Windows Phone ?

Um... I am pretty sure he was just saying that you cannot install apps on microSD cards, which means he will not buy this phone because there is not enough useful space on it. Seems like a perfectly good argument to me considering the OS and built in apps will eat almost 1/2 of the 8GB leaving some 5GB to use for apps. I don't have a whole lot of apps on my 920, but even then I have 2.4GB in apps, and an 'other' category that eats 3.5GB, so even without pictures, music, documents, and videos I would already be out of space.
I really wish more WP devices had 16-32GB of native storage, and then the ability to throw in a 32+GB SD card for things like music, pictures, and videos. 8GB is too small for local storage, and having 64GB of internal storage could make for a very expensive phone, but having a bit of each would be a great compromise.

Oh, also I really like the look of the 8X/S/XT. The matte pillow design with the smooth stripe looks (and feels) great. If only it had the cameras and software support found on Nokia phones it would be something I would really go for.

That is only true in some full daylight situations where the 920 is admittedly handicapped, but most of those issues went away with a firmware update a while back. For every other situation the 920 is worlds better in image quality.